FairTurns and SignUpGenius: sign-up sheet or roster?

Two ways to get a gap filled

The Brookfield Kindy end-of-year fete needs 30 helpers across six stalls. The coordinator, Fatima, sends one link, parents pick the stall and hour that suit them, and by Friday it’s full. That is a sign-up sheet, and it is exactly what SignUpGenius is for.

The same kindy also needs two parents every Monday to wash the paint pots and sweep the sandpit, all year. If that is a sign-up sheet, the keen parents take the easy weeks, the same five do most of it, and the last fortnight of term sits empty. That is a roster job: someone puts people on, the turns are counted, and everyone can see where they stand.

What SignUpGenius does

From SignUpGenius’s own pricing page, the free plan includes unlimited sign-up pages in several formats, automatic confirmation and reminder emails, simple group management, recurring event duplication, payment collection and a Payment Companion App for point-of-sale payments and ticket scanning. Participants can swap their spot to another available slot when logged in.

Paid plans are billed yearly on their US site: Silver at $107.89, Gold at $269.89 and Platinum at $539.89 a year, with Enterprise priced on request. Silver adds an ad-free sign-up, 150 text invites or updates and 2,500 emails a month, and calendar sync. Higher plans add waitlists, more admins, more texts and embedding on your website.

What FairTurns does

In FairTurns, you click a day, choose how it repeats (“Every week on Monday”), and set how many people each date needs. Fill puts people into the empty places over the next 1 to 12 months, each place going to whoever has had the fewest turns. People mark the days they’re away and are left off. Everyone sees the result on a public roster link with no sign-in.

All of that is free for any number of people. Pro is A$1 a month per organisation, paid one to five years at a time, and adds reminder emails, the schedule email, and replies: people say “I can do it” or “I can’t make it” from the email, and with filling by itself switched on, when someone can’t, the next person in line is asked.

Side by side

When SignUpGenius is the better choice

• You want people to choose their own slot, as for a fete, a working bee or a meal train.
• You need payments, tickets, forms or waivers alongside the sign-up.
• You want text messages to helpers.
• You run one-off events more than a roster that repeats all year.

When FairTurns fits better

• The same jobs repeat every week or month, and you want the turns shared out rather than first-in.
• Some people would never sign up, and you’d like them rostered anyway (add them by name, no email needed).
• You want one link that shows the whole roster, months ahead, to anyone.
• A team changes and you need a leaver’s dates handed out, with a list of who gains a date before anything moves: that is Redistribute.

Many groups use both: SignUpGenius for the fete, FairTurns for the Monday roster. People don’t book their own turns in FairTurns; you put them on, and they see it on the link.

Questions

Checked against SignUpGenius’s own pages on 24 October 2026; prices and features change, so check theirs before you decide.